Getrude was born to Henry the Lion of Bavaria and Saxony and Clementia of Zähringen in either 1152 or 1155. She was married to Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia, in 1166, and became a widow in 1167. In 1171 she was engaged and in February 1177 married to Prince Canute of Denmark in Lund. The couple lived the first years in Skåne. On 12 May 1182, she became queen. She did not have any children. During her second marriage, she chose to live in chastity and celibacy with her husband. Arnold of Lübeck remarked of their marriage, that her spouse was : "The most chaste one, living thus his days with his chaste spouse" in eternal chastity.